April 1, 2026 Editor’s note: The following is Bishop Terry R. LaValley’s homily from the Chrism Mass, celebrated March 26 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ogdensburg. Throughout the Mediterranean region and Palestine, oil was the symbol of vital strength. The fruit of the olive tree was the real fundamental food, even more than daily bread. Oil was, at the same time, also the medicine with which strength, rest and peace were restored to the body. The athletes who entered the arena anointed their bodies with oil, so that it[DF1.1] they would be soft, supple, strong, and lively, not dried out. A special symbol of today’s Chrism Mass is the sign of oil. Christ got His Name from it. As you know, Christ means “the Anointed One.” Oil took on new meaning in the Christian sacraments. The Sacraments remind us of the earthly life of Jesus, of the world out of which He steps to meet us. Our understanding of Christianity, one which, Fr. Hauser so beautifully shared at his recent Lenten reflection to our diocesan staff, is the fact that the Christian is in a battle with Satan in this world. The anointing in baptism suggests that the Christian is anointed by the Lord in order to enter into the drama of history, prepared to battle the forces of evil. When we are anointed before Baptism for the contest of life, this means that He, Who on the Cross fought the dramatic battle with the forces of hatred, evil, and despair, stands over our life as the power that carries us, that gives us life and does not allow us to dry out, that stands behind us and catches us when we grow tired and leads us through life’s arena into His mercy. That’s why we can be a hope-filled people. We have been anointed. When consecrated oil is put on the forehead and the hands of a person on his or her sickbed, then it no longer expresses merely the earthly and so often vain hopes that were placed in olive oil in the ancient world; now it is to be the sign for God’s true medicine. You see, with the oil comes the entrance of Jesus Christ into the very space of our suffering, our fears, and our needs. The anointing reminds us that God carries us and gives us peace and assurance that we are safe in God’s hands forever. This Mass of the Holy Oils is a feast of the Church and of her unity. Around the altar of this St. Mary’s Cathedral, we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This one altar, which expresses our local Church, our Diocese of Ogdensburg in its unity and entirety, is, in turn a reference to Jesus Christ Himself, Who is simultaneously the Living Altar and the Priest. We receive from and in this one cathedral the holy oils which will be taken out of this sacred space and distributed from here to Rouses Point to Ticonderoga to Wells, to Old Forge, Cape Vincent, to Massena to Champlain and all points in between so that the sacraments celebrated in the parishes throughout this diocese will come from this one center and appear visibly as the fruit of the sacrament of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. What happens today, in the consecration and distribution of the oils, fulfills what our psalm verses proclaim: “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord. I have found David my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him, that my hand may always be with him; and that my arm may make him strong.” These words suggest the outpouring of the holy oil over the whole body of the Church in the North Country. Pope Benedict XVI said this day is in a special way also a feast of priests, who have made this carrying, this distribution of the sacred oils, their life’s work. The whole lives of our priests consists in this kind of repeatedly going out from the center, so that the oil will flow throughout Christ’s Body, the Church, and will grow into the strength that comes to us from the Lord. This is why in just a minute, my brother priests will renew their ordination promises. It is as though we enter again into the center from which all our strength and mission come. We start again with the Lord, so that once more the life-giving oil might overcome the dryness of everyday routine and bring to life the joy of Christ’s victory over sin and death, the joy of the Gospel proclaimed and lived in our families of faith back home. We do this in the presence of the whole believing Church, for just as the priests in their way support the Church, they are supported in their ministry by you, the faithful. It is good and right that there are different charisms and different ways of understanding this ministry of distributing the oils and all that that signifies. The Church needs this because there are different sorts of people. But let us not become divided as a result. Division is of Satan. Even so let us stand by one another. We live by a common faith, by a common mission. Yes, we must stand by one another. We keep going—we can do so through all our differences by standing by what truly support us together by our Lord, by standing by Jesus Christ. Let us love Him, let us approach Him again and again. Praying the Breviary, personal Holy Hours, meditation on the Word—all these things are not just external, incidental habits that have grown up over the course of history; these are the signpost that show us the way to what is decisive. Brothers, only when we have in the deepest possible way this foundation of our common togetherness can we then tolerate various sorts of differences, because the essential thing behind them is never called into question, because we are all in Jesus Christ’s boat. We have all been anointed, even consecrated. May the tender love and reconciling Spirit of the Anointed One give us the vital strength to bring us the peace for which we all yearn. Christ-led, Christ-fed, we are hope-filled. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me. And for that--May God be praised…forever may God be praised. |
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